Horror Fiction Monsters

Lawless, British Columbia is on edge after a powerful earthquake jolts the region, quickly followed by a string of savage animal attacks. Newly stationed to the area after her predecessor mysteriously disappears, Conservation Officer Christine Moon needs to calm the jangled nerves of the small mountain town. Awakened from ancient slumber, something stalks the swirling, grey mists that surround Lawless. A beast with a gnawing hunger that grows stronger by the minute - its only thought, to satisfy its ravenous appetite.

The 1850s are a time of discovery, and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary is keen to make her name in this world of science alongside her geologist husband, Henry—but despite her sharp mind and sharper tongue, without wealth and connections their options are limited.

They call me mad, but I don’t see anything wrong with using science to create the perfect monster girl. They call me insane, but I just want to live my life with a harem of beautiful cat-girls, bear-girls, fox-girls, snake-girls, and...well, pretty much any type of monster girl. They call me a megalomaniac, but why wouldn’t any red blooded man want to make cute babies with all these beautiful monster girls? They call me evil, but they just don’t realize that I’d destroy anyone who tries to harm my monster girls.

Erin tends bar at the last dive left in gentrified Red Hook, Brooklyn, where old-timers spin tales of the bar’s legacy and the waterfront’s crime-ridden past. Her boss, Jimmy, a real estate magnate responsible for much of the neighborhood’s shiny transformation, also has a story to share. Back when he was a struggling beat cop, two neglected boys introduced him to an ancient creature that made Jimmy’s dreams come true. Nightmares too. Erin doesn’t believe a word. The bar is her life. But this bar at the end of the world is also home to a deadly stowaway. And it’s looking for a new host.

Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all. There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws. When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.

Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. And moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over as someone different. In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.

Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies. But this one is unique even by Detroit's standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams? If you're Detective Versado's geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you're desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story.

Guy is about to finish writing his breakthrough online article. He overheard the story by chance in a pub and it’s guaranteed to go viral - all he needs to do is persuade the World’s Unluckiest Man to talk to him. His best friend Larry’s quest for killer clickbait material has led him to a recently appeared shanty town in Glasgow, where he finds some kind of urban voodoo cult. Ex-cop Sam has already come face-to-face with the terrifying force behind both these phenomena, but he’s been trying to put it out of his mind.

Gabriel s'est perdu dans une pyramide. Sa cousine Sari, qui était dans la galerie devant lui, a mystérieusement disparu. Mais Gabriel a l'impression de ne pas être seul. Qui était là avec lui dans les ténèbres ? Peut-on troubler le repos millénaire de la prêtresse Khala sans courir de danger ?

Publié en langue française par Bayard Éditions.

It’s the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America, both at home and abroad. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn’t be farther from the front lines of Vietnam or the incendiary protests in Washington. But the world is changing, and Terry isn’t content to watch from the sidelines. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, code named MKULTRA.

The offspring of the four families have barely managed to escape the Bell Witch’s deadly harvest. Exhausted, terrified, and haunted by their families’ twisted secrets, they know that death still awaits in the woods. Unless they can work together, and end the curse once and for all. Determined to free their families from the witch’s game, the young survivors return to the mist-shrouded forests of Black River, Tennessee. But they soon realize they are not alone. Something is watching, stalking them through the gnarled trees.

Thomas Ward is the apprentice for the local Spook, who captures witches and drives away ghosts. As the weather gets colder and the nights draw in, the Spook receives an unexpected visitor. Tom doesn't know who the stranger is or what he wants, but the Spook suddenly decides it's time to travel to his winter house, Anglezarke. Tom has heard it will be a bleak, forbidding place, and that menacing creatures are starting to stir somewhere on the moors nearby.

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.

Lucy likes to tell monster stories. She's told so many that her friends and family are sick of it. Then one day, Lucy discovers a real, live monster: the librarian in charge of the summer reading program. Too bad Lucy's told so many monster tall tales.

With an Introduction by Shirley Jackson Award-winner Gemma Files, this outstanding anthology of all things monstrous includes spine-chilling stories from Bentley Little, Simon Clark, Elizabeth Massie, Tim Waggoner, Sumiko Saulson, plus some of the best emerging horror writers working today.

Amid the sweet sounds of a music box, their darkest fears will haunt them.... In Black River, Tennessee, everyone knows the legend of the Bell Witch...and the alleged curse that hangs like a dark shroud over the town. To some, it is just a local tall tale. But to others, it is terrifyingly real. For centuries, four families have been forced into the ritualistic tradition of sacrifice and terror. Every year, a member of each family stumbles upon an antique music box they need to lock before the time is up. And a horrible fate awaits them once the boxes open.

Dr. Warthrop is a scientist who tracks and studies real-life monsters. Assisted by his 12-year-old apprentice, Will Henry, Dr. Warthrop discovers a pod of Anthropophagi and launches a hunt to destroy the foul beasts.

The house breathes. The house contains bodies and secrets. The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes. It was built by a smalltime hustler as a means of controlling his wife, and even after so many years, their daughter and her granddaughter can't leave. They may be witches or they may just be angry, but when the mysterious disappearance of a young boy draws unwanted attention, the two isolated women, already subj

The cursed families of Black River are about to make their final stand. On one side are the survivors of the ancient curse, a nightmare that has plagued their bloodlines for centuries. And standing against them is the sinister and twisted Bell Witch, an evil spirit who lives on in a new host.... Powered by the souls of her victims, the witch’s malignance infests the woods surrounding Black River.

Jenna had promised her mother that if the worst happened during her dad's weekend, they would meet at Red Hill Ranch. When she finds seven words spray-painted on her dad's wall the morning after a deadly outbreak, she makes a promise to herself: to get to the ranch with her seven-year-old sister, Halle, and to get them both there alive.